[Primer] Colored Mana is for the Weak

Commander / EDH* Combo Competitive Eldrazi Stax Theme/Gimmick

Decrepit_Angel

Artifact (59)

• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Basalt Monolith
• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Chromatic Orrery
• 1x Clock of Omens
• 1x Doubling Cube
• 1x Dreamstone Hedron
• 1x Everflowing Chalice
• 1x Expedition Map
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Forsaken Monument
• 1x Fractured Powerstone
• 1x Gilded Lotus
• 1x Grim MonolithGC
• 1x Hedron Archive
• 1x Inspiring Statuary
• 1x Jeweled Amulet
• 1x Jeweled Lotus
• 1x Kyren Toy
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Lion's Eye DiamondGC
• 1x Liquimetal Torque
• 1x Lotus Petal
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mana VaultGC
• 1x Manascape Refractor
• 1x Manifold Key
• 1x Mind Stone
• 1x Mindslaver
• 1x Mirage Mirror
• 1x Moonsilver Key
• 1x Mox DiamondGC
• 1x Mox Opal
• 1x Phial of Galadriel
• 1x Prismatic Lens
• 1x Relic of Progenitus
• 1x Rings of Brighthearth
• 1x Sculpting Steel
• 1x Serum Powder
• 1x Sisay's Ring
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Sonic Screwdriver
• 1x Soul-Guide Lantern
• 1x Static Orb
• 1x Stonespeaker Crystal
• 1x Strionic Resonator
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Tangle Wire
• 1x The One RingGC
• 1x Thought Vessel
• 1x Thran Dynamo
• 1x Torpor Orb
• 1x TrinisphereGC
• 1x Unstable Obelisk
• 1x Unwinding Clock
• 1x Ur-Golem's Eye
• 1x Voltaic Key
• 1x Winter Orb
• 1x Worn Powerstone

Land (30)

• 1x Ancient TombGC
• 1x Blasted Landscape
• 1x Buried Ruin
• 1x Cavern of Souls
• 1x City of Traitors
• 1x Command Beacon
• 1x Crystal Vein
• 1x Darksteel Citadel
• 1x Eldrazi Temple
• 1x Emergence Zone
• 1x Eye of Ugin
• 1x Fomori Vault
• 1x Gemstone Caverns
• 1x High Market
• 1x Homeward Path
• 1x Inventors' Fair
• 1x Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
• 1x Miren, the Moaning Well
• 1x Mishra's Workshop
• 1x Sanctum of Ugin
• 1x Strip Mine
• 1x Talon Gates of Madara
• 1x The Mycosynth Gardens
• 1x The Tabernacle at Pendrell ValeGC
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Urza's Saga
• 1x War Room
• 2x Wastes
• 1x Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth

Commander (1)

Creature (5)

• 1x Emrakul, the Promised End
• 1x Geode Golem
• 1x Metalworker
• 1x Palladium Myr
• 1x Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger

Planeswalker (3)

• 1x Karn Liberated
• 1x Ugin, the Ineffable
• 1x Ugin, the Spirit Dragon

Instant (1)

• 1x Warping Wail

Sorcery (1)

• 1x All is Dust

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Maybeboard

Artifact (18)

• 1x Azor's Gateway  ^Flip
• 1x Chalice of the Void
• 1x Coalition Relic
• 1x Cursed Totem
• 1x Grafdigger's Cage
• 1x Horizon Stone
• 1x Lithoform Engine
• 1x Mind's Eye
• 1x Mycosynth Lattice
• 1x Mystic Forge
• 1x Null Brooch
• 1x Pithing Needle
• 1x Semblance Anvil
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Soul-Guide Lantern
• 1x Staff of Domination
• 1x Tormod's Crypt
• 1x Weathered Runestone

Creature (10)

• 1x Burnished Hart
• 1x Conduit of Ruin
• 1x Diamond Lion
• 1x Duplicant
• 1x Kozilek, the Great Distortion
• 1x Kuldotha Forgemaster
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Thought-Knot Seer
• 1x Void Winnower
• 1x Wandering Archaic  ^Flip

Land (6)

• 1x Bazaar of Baghdad
• 1x Blinkmoth Well
• 1x Scavenger Grounds
• 1x Treasure Vault
• 1x Ugin's Labyrinth
• 1x Wasteland

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Karn, the Great Creator

Instant (1)

• 1x Spatial Contortion

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Note: This primer is being updated based on the newest iteration of the deck. I had to take a 3 year break from the game after I unfortunately had to sell everything to pay for medical bills. I probably missed some stuff when going through the primer to update it and some of the more recent additions have had minimal testing. I will update this as I have time. The list is finally nearing a stable point so expect the primer to be updated vaguely soon.

The Old Gods are dead. Ula and Cosi are gone. Emeria is imprisoned in the banlist. But they will not be forgotten. For those who wish to carry their legacy in the EDH format, here is my list. Below is a primer on how to run the deck, explanations for card choices, budget options, and just about everything else you could ever want to know about the deck.

And don't let that $14,000 price tag scare you away. (people need to stop buying out crap, I am tired of updating this) Without the hyper-expensive reserved list cards and some of the cataclysmically expensive foils (i.e. Metalworker, Grim Monolith), a playable and competitive version is only around $800-$1,000. If your meta is causal enough that the winner of the game isn't decided in the first 3-5 turns, you can make it for far less than that and still be able to hold your own. Some budget options are discussed in the primer and if you want advice on how to build this deck with a set budget, I will be happy to help as much as I can.

The Primer

Why Colorless?

This is the most common question I have been asked about this deck since I first built it. If I am honest, it was originally built as a joke with the gimmick of not being able to play colored spells (mainly as a way to taunt my friend who constantly played an Iona, Shield of Emeria) but the more I played it the more I realized there is actually some real power to colorless. Then after about a month or so of messing around with the deck I played it against someone who had a Tier 1 competitive Zur the Enchanter storm deck. He mocked me and said that colorless would never have a place in EDH and if I ever wanted to win a game, I would have to add colors to it. And since then, my goal has been to prove him wrong.

At it's current state, there is no doubt that the deck is not a tier 1 deck but it has a surprisingly good matchup against most of the Tier1-1.5 lists due to the ridiculous speed that it assemble the pieces to overwhelm the opponents. I have played quite a few games against competitive pods and have won about 60% of them. By far the worst matchup is anything played dedicated artifact hate but against most of the solitaire style decks like it just pressures them immediately with difficult to answer threats and stax pieces to slow them down. The meta has shifted a bit over the last few years with some more creature based decks and this already runs good hate cards for such matchups.

All things considered though, limiting yourself to colorless is definitely a bit of a gimmick, but that does not mean that the deck suffers from it. There is no doubt in my mind that a good Kozilek, Butcher of Truth deck is a solid Tier 2-3 deck that can easily hold it's own against most of the Tier 1 decks. Honestly, if it had a few better tutors, I would be willing to say that it is an even higher tier due to the fluidity of how easily the deck can go from hardcore stax effects to combo wins to just crushing your opponent with ridiculous creatures. What makes it even better is how well all of these abilities function together and build off of each other. Despite having run about 30 other EDH decks of varying power level, the synergies in this one still surprise me to this day and that is just not something that you can easily get elsewhere.

Why Kozilek?

Colorless EDH has more options than one would think. Before explaining why I picked Kozilek, Butcher of Truth, I will explain why I did not pick the others.

Karn, Silver Golem: This is definitely a reasonable option but I have found it to be far more fragile than Kozilek and is forced to be more centered on combo due to the low impact of Karn without combo pieces.

Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger/Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre: Although both are high impact cards, they are oddly fragile. If they are removed from the board/countered, it gets harder to cast them and the first cast likely cost the large majority of your resources to achieve.

Emrakul, the Promised End: This is a tempting one due to how great Mindslaver effects are in EDH. However, it is similar to the Ulamogs where it is fragile. I will go into more detail on this card later in the primer.

Hope of Ghirapur: It is funny I guess but I don't really see it as a good commander. Maybe one day someone will prove me wrong.

Traxos, Scourge of Kroog: It exists. Not much more to say about it. I see no reason to run this.

Kozilek, the Great Distortion: This is one I have had many arguments about and have even run as a commander for a while. His ability to counter spells is weirdly relevant, he does fun shenanigans with Silent Arbiter effects, and he can situationally draw you more card than the Butcher can. However, that is exactly his downfall. He situationally draws you more cards. Draw X where X = a number between 0 and 7 is not as good as draw 4. If the game goes long and you finally cast Kozilek with 7 dead cards already in hand, drawing 0 for 10 mana is unacceptable. This has cost me many games and forces the deck to run bad enablers such as discard outlets to ditch bad cards. Butcher will always draw you 4 cards, Distortion will not.

Kozilek, Butcher of Truth: He does everything you could ever want from a commander. Has an almost uncounterable Opportunity stapled onto him. Destroys everything in his path and usually knock the defending player out of the game with just a single swing. In the event that they can shrug off the Annihilator 4 (looking at you Sigarda, Host of Herons), if his swing connects twice, that is lethal commander damage. And in odd situations such as getting milled out by an opposing Phenax, God of Deception player, any sacrifice outlet can ensure that you don't deck out. Not much more can be said, he is definitely the strongest choice for a colorless commander. Just note that Annihilator is a scary mechanic at lower power level tables which will more or less guarantee that you are a target early on.

The Strategy

Kozilek excels at three things: "Stax", "Combo", and "Combat".

''Stax" refers to hate pieces to try to slow down the game/lock your opponents out of the game such as Winter Orb, Static Orb, Tangle Wire, etc.

"Combo" refers to cards that when combined win the game immediately such as Rings of Brighthearth + Basalt Monolith to make infinite colorless mana. This can be uses in a variety of ways to win the game.

"Combat" refers to killing off your opponents by attacking them with your creatures.

Here is where the greatest personal preference comes into play. Most Kozilek lists will have a bit of all three but the balance of them is what makes the lists unique. This specific list focuses on Combo/Stax with Combat as a backup. However, there is a lot of overlap. Stax with Kozilek in play will easily allow for Combat wins or make it easy to set up for a Combo win.

Knowing this, most games with this deck will start fairly similar. The first few turns will be spent casting acceleration and if the table demands it throwing out Stax pieces to slow down your opponent. Getting to 10 mana is usually trivial with a decent hand, even through some disruption. Once you get to 10 mana, the usual option is to cast Kozilek, Butcher of Truth, refill your hand and put everyone to the test to see if they can answer him. Most games he will be answered, if not, enjoy and easy win. However, if he is answered, assuming that someone did not Stifle his cast trigger, you will have a new hand and be able to quickly rebuild your mana and cast another absurd threat, perhaps even Kozilek again. Eventually people will run out of answers.

Alternatively, a Stax piece or two following an early Eldrazi God is usually the end of the game, or at least enough to kill off an opponent or two. With some common sense and decent threat assessment, this will usually mean the end of the game for your opponents.

Mindslaver and Emrakul, the Promised End (Mindslaver Lite with built in I don't care if you counter this, I am still taking your turn) are both great options, especially against combo decks assuming you understand the combo and can use it against them. My favorite is to make that player cast a Doomsday, make the correct pile, and then forget to cast the Laboratory Maniac for the extra salt factor. Killing them with their own Necropotence/Ad Nauseam are acceptable too. And if it happens to be an Aetherflux Reservoir deck, they will politely choose to kill off your opponents for you before dealing 50 to themselves.

And of course just going infinite yourself is always an option. The specifics of this will be covered in detail later in the primer.

Card Choices

Pretty much every card in this deck serves a purpose that can be easily separated into one or more categories:

Acceleration: This is probably the most important part considering that the plan of the deck is to cast 10 drops by turn 4 at the absolute latest.

Stax: Used to slow down your opponents or just lock them out of the game following an early Eldrazi God.

Combo pieces: Should be pretty self explanatory.

Interaction: Solitaire is not an ideal strategy for EDH. Even my Thrasios/Vial Smasher "usually wins on turn 3 with counterspell backup" deck has interaction. Colorless is a little light on interaction but interaction is necessary no matter the cost if you don't feel like losing to the first card that contradicts your strategy.

Payoffs: These are cards that benefit from having absurd amounts of mana very early in the game and often lead to winning the game if unanswered.

Lands: ...I am pretty sure you can figure out what these do.

Enablers: The stuff that allows this deck to do absurd things like turn three Eldrazi Gods and still have mana to do it again the next turn.

With all of that in mind, here are some cards that are not blatantly obvious (I am not explaining why cards like Sol Ring and Mana Crypt are in here)

Artifacts Show

Ashnod's Altar: Enabler. Sacrifice outlets are good in EDH. Especially when your commander says draw 4 cards on cast. Throw in infinite mana to win on the spot. I have tried cutting this many times and always find that I still want it. This is very useful when you have infinite mana as it is a repeatable sacrifice outlet so any card in library can be looped an arbitrary amount of times. Without this, it is often difficult to win on the spot with infinite mana.

Azor's Gateway  : Acceleration, Enabler. This card is a good way to dig through your library and ditch some of the cards that occasionally result in a brick hand of really high CMC stuff and has a ridiculous ramp potential if it ever flips. Goes great with Unwinding Clock.

Clock of Omens: Acceleration, Enabler. This card does everything. Primarily used as an acceleration piece, this also works as an enabler for greater shenanigans such as untapping stuff that doesn't untap on it's own and even tapping down certain stax pieces so that they do not hinder us. You will see this mentioned many times throughout this primer.

Doubling Cube: Acceleration, Combo. From 7 mana onward this is acceleration with progressively more upside as you throw more mana at it. Goes hilariously well with Clock of Omens and Paradox Engine to get absurd amounts of mana. One of the best ways to continue casting Kozilek once he hits the 14+ cost. Goes really well with Horizon Stone.

Forsaken Monument: Acceleration, Combo. The extra mana that this produces is great and it also just happens to go infinite with Basalt Monolith. Probably the best replacement for Paradox Engine that this deck will get any time soon.

Horizon Stone: Acceleration, Enabler. This is a way to stockpile extra mana and ramp as well as just making ludicrous amounts of mana with Unwinding Clock.

Inspiring Statuary: Acceleration. This is a great acceleration piece most of the time but against decks running Stony Silence (the absolute worst possible card for you to see while playing this deck), it might as well be the Holy Grail. Improvise is not an activated ability so you can use this to get to something like a Karn Liberated or Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger and actually play the game.

Lion's Eye Diamond: Acceleration. Definitely a situational acceleration piece but in the correct situations, it is one of the best you could ever hope for. Mainly used to cast Kozilek from the command zone and immediately replace the cards you ditched to use it. Turn 1 to 2 Eldrazi Gods are not uncommon with this. Also works great as a free untap for Paradox Engine or just a regular Mox with Inspiring Statuary. Of all the high dollar cards in this list, this is one that I would recommend over all of the rest.

Mindslaver: Interaction, Payoff. Quite possibly my all time favorite card thanks to this deck. I could go on for pages with hilarious stories of ridiculous ways this card has killed my opponent and won me games that were not possible to win with any other means but anyone who has been hit by a Mindslaver before knows that this card is the most devastating effect in all of mtg short of an effect like Door to Nothingness. Goes great with Rings of Brighthearth to take multiple players turns. Also, as mentioned previously, probably your best card against dedicated combo decks.

Mirage Mirror: Acceleration, Interaction, Combo. This is an interesting clone piece that turned out to be incredibly good in practice. It shines when you can use it multiple times in response to its own ability (i.e. activate targeting your Grim Monolith, maintain priority, activate targeting an opponents Necropotence. Allow the first ability to resolve, spend some life into the Necropotence, and then it becomes a Grim Monolith that won't have the downside of not untapping normally because it will be a Mirage Mirror again at end of turn).

Moonsilver Key: Enabler. I wasn't expecting colorless to get a decent tutor but I am not going to argue.

Paradox Engine: F

Relic of Progenitus: Interaction. It is graveyard hate that can cycle itself. What else could you hope for?

Rings of Brighthearth Enabler, Combo. Primarily used for its win the game immediately combos, this can just be used as a great value piece. Does everything from getting an extra draw off of cycling a Blasted Landscape to taking multiple players turns with a Mindslaver to just making an arbitrarily large amount of mana and winning the game.

Semblance Anvil: Accelaration, Combo. One of the best acceleration pieces in the entire deck with the downside of losing an extra card if it gets destroyed. Whenever possible, imprint an artifact creature to get the -2 mana discount on both artifacts and creatures. Combined with Paradox Engine allows for some ridiculously easy "storm" turns and is also an option for the Spine/Krark Clan combo. Do not underestimate this card. I even intentionally added a few more artifact creatures to the deck specifically because of how good they are with this card.

Staff of Domination: Interaction, Combo. Mainly used for it's "win the game" with Metalworker and 3 artifacts in hand. Also works with a Clock of Omens, Sculpting Steel as a second Staff and an artifact that taps for 3+ mana. Outside of that, it is a decent mana sink with some reasonable forms of interaction stapled onto it.

Static Orb: Stax. Pretty self-explanatory. Errata'd to only work when untapped so combine with a Blinkmoth Well/Clock of Omens to make it one sided.

Strionic Resonator: Enabler. Goes hilariously well with Eldrazi cast triggers (or attack triggers, Annihilator 8 usually says defending player concedes in a salty manner). Also just happens to go infinite with Paradox Engine and at least 3 mana from nonland sources (and a spell to trigger then engine obviously). Engine/Resonator is the most common turn 1/2 infinite for this deck to pull off due to the relatively low mana investment.

Tangle Wire: Stax. Again, should be pretty self-explanatory. Just make sure to order the triggers on your turn so that it removes the counter first. Also goes great with stuff that doesn't care if it is tapped such as Ashnod's Altar or itself as one of the three assuming it makes it back to you. Usually the best stax piece to accompany an early Eldrazi God because it prevents your opponents from using most sorcery speed interaction or throwing out some Annihilator fodder before they get hit.

Tormod's Crypt: Interaction. Graveyard hate is graveyard hate. Not much that needs to be said. Can also function as a Mox with Inspiring Statuary in play.

Torpor Orb: Stax. Stops a few cards in this deck while entirely crippling certain strategies. Also just happens to stop a ton of the most annoying cards for this deck to see (Bane of Progress, Reclamation Sage, Zealous Conscripts, etc.).

Unwinding Clock: Enabler. Mainly used for the free untap on stuff that does not untap on its own. Also goes great with anything you can use mana to do on an opponents turn as well such as Eye of Ugin, paying the rest of the cost on Mindslaver, drawing cards with Mind's Eye, sacrificing Burnished Hart, and much more. My favorite use other than the artifacts that don't untap on their own is Kyren Toy and Coalition Relic to put a ton of charge counters on them to ramp you on your next turn. Just think of it as the artifact version of Seedborn Muse and it should not be hard to justify it's inclusion.

Winter Orb: Stax. See Static Orb.

Creatures Show

Burnished Hart: Acceleration, Enabler. Decent acceleration. Not much needs to be said. Perfect fodder to ditch to a Semblance Anvil.

Diamond Lion: Acceleration. This is probably the only deck that would ever actually want to play this. Just treat it as a second slower LED for casting a quick Kozilek. If the situation demands it, this can always be sacrificed to Ashnod's Altar or exiled to Semblance Anvil.

Duplicant: Interaction. It is colorless removal for creatures. Play what you can.

Emrakul, the Promised End: Payoff, Interaction. The tyrant of standard, so much so that she was even banned in standard, her power is significantly higher in Commander with the additional players and the fact that most people run sacrifice outlets. Mindslaver effects are not to be taken lightly and can completely bring you back from guaranteed defeat. Having an (almost) uncounterable one on a 13/13 flying, trample, and pro instants body is all anyone could ever ask for in a deck like this. Her cost discounting ability usually results in her casting between 9 and 11. If it wasn't for the fact the Kozilek's card draw is what allows this deck to function, I would probably make her the commander because of how much I love this card.

Geode Golem: Enabler. I expect this to eat a removal spell 95% of the time but this deck also runs haste effects so this can easily be a {5} Kozilek, Butcher of Truth if it is timed well. Also another random thing that can be tutored by Kuldotha Forgemaster. I also see this as a way to dig yourself out from a Null Rod effect as if it connects, you have a very threatening creature that helps you dig for answers for less mana than any of the other answers the deck is able to run. I'm not 100% sold on this but it really seems like it belongs here.

Kozilek, the Great Distortion: Payoff, Interaction. Already discussed in the "Why Kozilek?" section. And if I can't justify running him as the commander, I can at least justify running it in the deck.

Kuldotha Forgemaster: Enabler, Interaction. Usually used as a way to tutor combo pieces by sacrificing spare artifacts, this can also be used to get instant speed interaction such as Spine of Ish Sah or a Torpor Orb to negate an ETB trigger. If you happen to run Blightsteel Colossus, he can also just grab that.

Metalworker: Acceleration, Combo. This deck runs 59 artifacts other than this card. Probably the best mana rock in the deck that also just happens to go infinite with Staff of Domination and 3 artifacts in hand.

Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger: Payoff, Interaction. Exile two things on cast and has a great alternative win condition if he attacks a few times. Goes hilariously well with Strionic Resonator. Almost always my first tutor off of an Eye of Ugin or Sanctum of Ugin.

Planeswalkers, Instants, and Sorceries Show

Karn Liberated: Payoff, Interaction. He usually just removes problem permanents with his -3 (GTFO Stony Silence). His +4 is great for disrupting opponents and keeping himself alive with the absurd amount of loyalty he can add every turn. Some times it is possible to go for his ultimate if you shut down everyone else fast enough and his ultimate is almost guaranteed to win you the game. Goes great with Rings of Brighthearth to abuse his abilities multiple times.

Ugin, the Ineffable: Payoff, Interaction, Acceleration. As with the other walkers, this will almost always be a removal spell but his static ability is really useful and creating the weird token things goes really well with Ashnod's Altar as a jank ramp/card draw engine.

Ugin, the Spirit Dragon: Payoff, Interaction. Most of the time, he is just used for his -X ability to exile everyone else's field and then stick around Lightning Bolting stuff until someone deals with him. Can also lead to the most ridiculous blowouts ever. My favorite was having Ugin sit at 11 and activating his -10, copying with Rings of Brighthearth, copying that with Strionic Resonator, and copying that again with Rings of Brighthearth. For some unimaginable reason, I won that game.

All is Dust: Interaction. This card is a one sided board wipe. This card is one I always enjoy playing as it is usually a 10+ for one. What makes it even greater is that some other decks run this card because it is a colorless board wipe card. It almost always ends up being stuck in their hand not benefiting them because there isn't anything for them to hit in this deck with it. Also counts as two different card types towards Emrakul, the Promised End's discount ability.

Warping Wail: Interaction. It is a modal interaction spell that can always just make an Eldrazi Scion if it has no use. Also, no one ever expects the colorless counterspell.

Lands Show

This deck runs 28 tech lands and this section has already gone on long enough. I am only going to point out the ones not normally run/the hyper expensive ones. If you have questions on any lands in specific, feel free to ask and I will do my best to explain my reasoning.

Blinkmoth Well: Taps down stax artifacts or mess with opponents mana on their upkeep by tapping down a Mana Vault or something similar. Very versatile effect for a small investment.

Cavern of Souls: Mana Drain is a good card that sees a lot of play in higher power level groups. When it counters your 10 drop, your opponent will probably win with the 10 free mana they get on their turn. Just say no to all of that by not letting them counter it to begin with.

Inventors' Fair: A relatively low investment for an instant speed tutor on a land. No question that this belongs in here. Also, incremental life gain is a thing and has actually kept me alive once in a game that I won at 2 life.

Mishra's Workshop: That price tag is a bit of a stone wall for entry. Although not needed for the deck to function and be competitive, this land is absurd and allows for a lot of different turn 1-2 wins that are not possible without it. If you decide to get one, just don't forget that it can only normally be used to cast artifacts, not use abilities of artifacts. Can tap for non-artifact mana if there is an Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth or Chromatic Lantern in play.

Strip Mine/Wasteland/Tectonic Edge: Welcome to stax. Cut your opponent off of mana so they cannot stop you. Goes great with Winter Orb (break the land they untap during their upkeep), Tangle Wire, and Static Orb.

The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale: Another ridiculous price tag. My apologies. Just like the Workshop, this is not needed to be competitive but this card just destroys a lot of deck by existing on the field. Definitely one of the strongest stax pieces ever printed. Also can tap for mana with and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth or Chromatic Lantern.

Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth: Already mentioned a few times why this is good. Doesn't specifically show a black mana symbol in the card so it has no color identity and therefore can be ran in this deck. Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth is essentially just a second copy of this.

Urza's Saga: This card is insanely good. If nothing else, it can always replace itself with a Mana Crypt/Sol Ring. It also completes the full list for possible card types to discount Emrakul, the Promised End. I don't expect to ever have all the types to cast her for {7} but a man can dream.

4x Wastes: 4 is plenty for my purposes. Solemn Simulacrum/Burnished Hart are the only cards that get them unless an opponent uses a Path to Exile on one of our creatures. Feel free to add more if your meta has a lot of nonbasic land hate or if you can't afford some of the other lands and your playgroup does not allow proxies.

Combos

When I first started playing competitively, someone told me the following: "The strongest combos in the format aren't necessarily the fastest ones or the hardest ones to interact with, they tend to be the ones with the least dead cards when you cannot successfully combo off with them."

Given the low density of tutors in colorless that are worth running, this philosophy is the best way to approach the combo aspect of this deck. The large majority of the combo pieces in this deck overlap or serve other functions outside of just being a 2-3 card "I win the game." With this in mind, here are the combos I have noticed in this deck:

Rings of Brighthearth + Basalt Monolith: Here is the obvious one. With just two extra mana, creates infinite colorless. Throw in Ashnod's Altar to sacrifice and re-cast Kozilek as much as you want or Sensei's Divining Top to draw the entire library, cast all of it, Infinitely loop Mindslaver, cast Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger and copy his cast and/or attack trigger an arbitrary amount of times with Strionic Resonator and Voltaic Key to exile everything or whatever else your heart desires. Rings of Brighthearth can now be replaced with Forsaken Monument for the same result and doesn't even require the two extra mana that RoB does for the combo.

Rings of Brighthearth + Voltaic Key + any artifact that taps for {4}+ (usually either Metalworker or Everflowing Chalice): Result is the same as the previous combo.

Staff of Domination + Metalworker (at least 3 artifacts in hand): Yet another way to make infinite mana. Metalworker cannot have summoning sickness for this combo to work and if you are using Lightning Greaves to bypass this, you must be able to move the Greaves to another creature you control to actually use the Staff to untap the Metalworker. Comes with a built in way to draw your entire library and win on the spot.

Clock of Omens + Staff of Domination + Sculpting Steel + and mana rock that taps for at least {3}: Have the Sculpting Steel enter as a second Staff of Domination. Tap both using Clock of Omens's ability to untap your mana rock. Use this mana to untap both Staffs with their own ability. Rinse and repeat.

Paradox Engine and Storming Off in Mono Colorless

F

Potential Weaknesses

No deck is perfect and as much as I love this deck, enough artifact hate can shut it down. It isn't too hard to shrug off a Vandalblast as long as I had the chance to cast Kozilek first and refill my hand but I would be lying if I didn't say that it hurts the deck. The worst ones to see are effects like Stony Silence or Null Rod. The best hope against these is to just get to enough mana to cast Karn Liberated, Ugin, the Spirit Dragon (if it is Stony Silence and not Null Rod, or Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger As a note, Stony Silence does not stop triggered abilities so it isn't necessary to hold back all artifacts until it is gone unless there is also some obvious artifact hate floating around. Luckily, these cards tend to annoy other people too and unless I have already made a bunch of enemies, it is possible that someone else will deal with it before I have the chance. And since AER, we now have the ability to use Improvise with Inspiring Statuary to get around this.

The only other negative thing that I have noticed since I started playing this is that a lot of people have started using Act of Treason or Mind Control style effects to steal Kozilek after I cast him (mainly Gilded Drake, which is another reason for the inclusion of Torpor Orb). Sacrifice outlets prevent this but it always feels bad to die from your own commander and if someone is holding either of these cards, there is a very good chance that Kozilek will be the creature it targets. If this is already an issue in your meta, make sure to include a Homeward Path to make sure your ridiculously powerful creature stays yours.

That said though, I have cast Kozilek, Butcher of Truth for 28 mana (without infinite mana) before due to commander tax. That entire game my opponents just kept saying that if he dies enough times, my deck will finally stop working. It turns out that enough times is quite a few because I still managed to win that game.

Budget Options/Cards to Test Out

The most expensive cards by far in this deck are Mishra's Workshop and The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale. Although these are definitely powerful cards, their ridiculous price tag is an understandable reason to not buy them. With the perpetual buyouts that plague this game due to the cancerous nonsense that is the reserved list, I am sure that more cards will hit ridiculous prices over time. Here are some other options to replace these and some other cards if you don't have/don't want to spend the money on them:

Akroma's Memorial: A great payoff that became too difficult to include with the loss of partial paris mulligans. It is admittedly hilarious to staple all of those abilities onto an Eldrazi God but I would only run it in a very casual meta or if you are going all out for the Combat win strategy.

Blightsteel Colossus: Costs a ton of mana but can be cheated out by Kuldotha Forgemaster. Initially removed to test out Emrakul, the Promised End and I decided that I liked Emmy better.

Command Beacon: A good budget option, especially if you are focusing more on combat than I am.

Darksteel Forge: A decent payoff for slower metas that allows you to play the long game without being as concerned about artifact hate. I personally am not a fan of this card but if you like it, feel free to run it. Also can be grabbed at instant speed with Kuldotha Forgemaster in response to artifact removal.

Drownyard Temple: Great when playing in a meta with a bunch of Wheel of Fortune effects or land hate.

Endbringer: A great budget option that does fun shenanigans with Unwinding Clock. Also serves as removal against small creatures and a win condition with Paradox Engine combo lines.

Homeward Path: For when your opponents like to steal your stuff.

It That Betrays: A great budget option that goes hilariously well with All is Dust. Also, my commander. Weirdly good against G/B value based decks like Meren of Clan Nel Toth and randomly hoses some combos including certain variants of Protean Hulk shenanigans and pretty much anything that uses Karmic Guide loops.

Maze of Ith: Useful ability that with a Chromatic Lantern/Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth can just tap for mana if you don't need to use the ability. I finally decided to cut this due to the amount of nonbasic land hate floating around and the fact that this deck is better off when it is the one demanding answers instead of trying to play reactively.

Myr Battlesphere: Fun combo shenanigans with Kuldotha Forgemaster and is a decent way to get rid of planeswalkers if you have to worry about those in your meta. Also relevant if your opponents like their Sheoldred, Whispering One effects so you can throw away a Myr token instead of an Eldrazi God.

Oblivion Sower: Also good in your meta runs Wheel effects and land hate. Mass graveyard removal (such as Relic of Progenitus) can make this into a ridiculous ramp spell.

Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre: Initially cut to improve consistency, definitely still a reasonable choice.

Wastes: The cheapest option for cutting expensive lands. Also a good option of your meta has a lot of non-basic land hate.

And here are some cards that probably deserve a spot but I just haven't gotten around to testing out:

(see maybeboard)

Conclusion

I have been playing this deck for quite some time now and I can definitely recommend giving it a shot. I am always interested to hear about potential upgrades and cards to test out for this deck as well as just discussing it. Feel free to +1 or comment if you liked it or it gave you any ideas for your own deck.

And of course, credit to Juwdah for his primer on mtgsalvation and for the inspiration to make this a real deck instead of a joke like it was when I first built it with a $40 budget. Make sure to check out his primer for more ideas on how to play a Kozilek deck and for some cards I decided not to use that you may prefer over my choices.

Top Ranked	Achieved #37 position overall 7 years ago Achieved #2 position in Commander / EDH Eldrazi 3 years ago Achieved #2 position in Commander / EDH Stax 3 years ago
Date added	8 years
Last updated	8 months
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	26 - 0 Mythic Rares 39 - 0 Rares 29 - 0 Uncommons 4 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.16
Tokens	Construct 0/0 C, Eldrazi Scion 1/1 C, Spirit 2/2 C
Folders	EDH, Commander, Deck recipes to try, Possible EDH Decks, Voidbros, Koz EDH, EDH, Interesting Commander, Ideas, New Decks